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Ihor Mazepa, a Ukrainian investment banker and head of Kyiv-based Concord Capital, in connection with a 2014 lawsuit against a businessman for allegedly illegally acquiring land for a conventional housing development in 2013. He was taken into custody on January 18th.
Mazepa was detained by the State Bureau of Investigation (SBI) and national police at the Polish border while on his way to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, according to his lawyer.
His younger brother, Yuri Mazepa, and two others were also detained. Law enforcement officers also searched the premises of Concorde Capital in Kiev.
“Ihor Mazepa denies all charges,” Anna Diakonova, head of communications at Concord Capital, said in written comments to the Kyiv Independent.
The incident is just the latest in a series of incidents that Ukraine’s business community alleges is systematic state pressure, including unannounced searches, asset seizures and detentions. They say the incursions have only increased since they began in earnest, and warn that harassment of businesses is deterring potential investment.
The trend has led some in Ukraine to liken the pressure to the era of Viktor Yanukovych, the notoriously corrupt president who was ousted in 2014 following the Euromaidan revolution. Some are placing the blame squarely on officials in President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s administration.
The CEO Club Ukraine community is “outraged by the illegal actions of SBI agents against Ihor Mazepa” and called on law enforcement to stop pressure on the business.
“What remains to be seen is whether the system has broken down, the silos of power no longer exist and everyone is acting at their own discretion as if it were the last day, or whether this is a national Is it policy?” the businessman wrote. and Manifest 42 member Oleksandr Sokolovsky.
Mazeppa was an outspoken critic of the pressures on business. Last May, he announced the creation of a list of law enforcement officers and judges who abused their positions.
Last June, 42 entrepreneurs supported the initiative and released a manifesto defending Article 42 of the Constitution. The article states that “everyone has the right to engage in lawful entrepreneurial activities” and states “shall ensure competition and protection of entrepreneurial activities”.
In November, the Manifesto 42 group said the situation has only gotten worse in the five months since President Zelenskiy ordered the creation of a single testing agency to address pressure on companies.
The declaration cites data from the Attorney General’s Office released in November 2023 that shows that law enforcement agencies often start and are dismissed without ever going to court. The proportion of criminal cases in the country has reached a historic high of 77%. .
Most of these cases are used to allege pressure on companies or engage in extortion or other corrupt practices, the manifesto said.
“Mr. Mazepa was one of the first businessmen to openly say that the pressure on business in various investigative bodies is too high,” Jaroslav Zhelezniak, a lawmaker from the Khoroz party, said in an interview with the Kyiv Independent newspaper. Ta.
“I think his public stance on this issue was one of the main reasons for rehashing the 2014 criminal case,” he said.
Charges against Mazepa
Mazepa and his media outlet claimed that his detention was a baseless attack on his business.
In a statement, Concord Capital’s press office said: “The searches were carried out without a court order and documents unrelated to the case but related to all areas of Mazepa’s business activities were taken, and documents of employees working on other projects were taken. Personal belongings were also confiscated.” .
“We associate these actions of the SBI with Ihor Mazepa’s position regarding security forces’ pressure on businesses.”
According to law enforcement officials, Mazepa allegedly orchestrated a plan to illegally seize land on which hydraulic structures of the state-run Kyiv Hydropower Plant are located.
The Attorney General’s Office also revealed that the businessman, his brother, and others involved in the scheme used corrupt connections in government agencies to illegally acquire seven hectares of land worth more than Hr20 million ($530,000). announced that it had been confiscated.
Meanwhile, according to Concorde Capital, the criminal case, which was initiated in 2014, concerns the allocation of land parcels with a total area of 2.4 hectares.
“I have not allocated state land to anyone. I have not yet received an answer to the question whether the people who allocated it are in custody,” Mazepa said in a January 19 Facebook post. mentioned in.
“The prosecution is asking for a precautionary bail amount of 700 million Hr ($18.6 million) for me. 700 hours, not 700,000 hours, 700 million hours. And an additional 500 million Hr ($13.3 million) for my brother. ) was paid out. So if the loss amounts to 7 million ($186,000), at least Hr 1.2 billion ($32 million) is required,” the businessman wrote.
Mazepa told reporters during a court break on January 19 that the case is based on project documents created in the 1960s. Mr Mazepa said there were 30 rulings from three institutions that it was perfectly legal to build properties on top of these. plot.
“This case has been around for 10 years, but it has started moving in the last month and a half. Some of our neighbors in these areas have been in pre-trial detention since November for similar cases,” Mazepa said. Ta.
His lawyer said he was charged with creating a criminal organization.
Mazepa was detained from January 19 to February 28, with bail potentially set at H349 million ($9.3 million).
Signs of pressure
Diakonova, Concorde Captain’s communications director, told the Kiev Independent newspaper that she gave reasons showing that Mazepa’s detention was unfounded.
First, other similar lands have long been freely bought and sold.
Second, criminal proceedings are conducted by the National Bureau of Investigation, which is required to investigate misconduct by public officials. “However, no official has been notified of the allegations (in this case),” she said.
Thirdly, all necessary permits were obtained during the allocation of land plots.
Dmytro Olynyk, one of the founders of Manifesto 42 and head of the Federation of Employers of Ukraine, said that while the lawsuit against Mazepa is an expression of pressure on companies, “we still don’t know who is doing this and why. I don’t know.” ”
“This arbitrariness is not helping Ukraine’s investment climate,” he said, adding that several business organizations will address President Zelenskiy and parliament to stress the need to reform the criminal procedure code.
“It is clear that this is a push on business with a clear political content,” Zhelezniak told the Kyiv Independent.
Zhelezniak made it clear that he believed the pressure was coming from two deputy heads of Zelenskiy’s presidential administration, Rostislav Shulma, in charge of economic affairs, and Ole Tatarov, in charge of law enforcement.
Both “prevent the reopening of the Financial Investigations Bureau,” he said.
“Over the past year, we have seen a clear trend of law enforcement acting arbitrarily against businesses,” he said.
He added, “If this trend does not change, I am concerned that our country’s business environment will soon reach the level of 2012-2013 under President Yanukovych.”
Roman Vashuk, Ukraine’s business ombudsman, told the Kiev Independent that the details of the case are not completely clear, but that “countries at war spend 10 or 11 years arresting people. “I wonder if it makes sense to prioritize doing that,” he said. Old cases suddenly become very urgent. ”
“This raises big questions about whether due process was applied here.”
Vashuk said his council has seen various lawsuits against Ukrainian companies where land acquisition is at issue.
Pattern of pressure
In another similar recent incident, Kiev-based rubber products manufacturing company Kievma had its offices searched on January 4 on suspicion of supplying tactical medical equipment to Russia.
At the time, Ukraine’s Security Service (SBU) announced that it had arrested “one of Ukraine’s largest rubber and plastic producers” based in Kyiv Oblast for “transporting tactical harnesses and bandages to Russia.”
Later, the SBU told Interfax Ukraine that one of Kyivma’s founders was detained without bail for 60 days.
The company claims that since Russia’s full-scale invasion began, it has “completely stopped cooperating with the aggressor country” and that its products may have entered Russia through customers’ resale, making the accusations denied. The company also said its products are not military grade.
Ostrokhuld told Forbes Ukraine that he believes a competitor may be behind the allegations and is trying to put Kievma in a negative light and force it out of the market.
Another widely publicized incident involved Lviv restaurant group !Fest, which owns dozens of popular bars and restaurants in Ukraine.
In late October 2023, armed employees of the Financial Investigation Service of Ukraine, known by its Ukrainian acronym BEB, appeared at the door of the offices of the !Fest restaurant group in Lviv and blocked entry to the employees.
The company vehemently denies the accusations and denounced the visit on social media as a state raid.
“As long as the state attacks entrepreneurs with weapons instead of protecting them, our country is not a country for civilized investors,” Yurko Nazaruk, co-owner of the restaurant group, wrote on Facebook during the raid. Ta.
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